Edward Scrimshaw and his Neighbours: A Parody Poem

One of the hardest of genealogical struggles is to find information on the ‘character’ of an ancestor. Sometimes it can be inferred from a newspaper article, a court report, or a letter that has passed down the generations. Often the information is sparse and fragmentary.

Some time ago I was delighted to receive a transcription of a poem in the back of John Peck’s diary from 1834, held at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum. Many of my extended farming family are mentioned throughout the diaries: friends of the diarist, or married to members of his family. However, one of my great-great-great-grandfathers, Edward Scrimshaw, was not seen in a favourable light. The transcription had the following note attached: ‘Peck appears to have found a neighbouring farmer, the litigious and occasionally aggressive Edward Scrimshaw, rather a problem over the years. A printed cutting of a ballad, with [Peck’s] own notes in red ink, is pasted to the back endpaper of the volume.’

While the transcription was helpful, I was curious as to what Peck had said in the additional notes and contacted the museum, who sent me an image of the endpapers of the diary, including the poem and the notes written by Peck. 

John Peck’s Diary, 1834, Endpapers, WISFM: 1996.99.21, Wisbech and Fenland Museum, http://www.wisbechmuseum.org.uk/

The background to the poem

Scrimshaw has been concerned at the condition of Murrow Lane which ran along the edge of one of his pieces of land. He took the inhabitants of Wisbech Saint Mary to court for not repairing the road. The case, which was heard at the Cambridge Assizes on 13 March 1834, resulted in a verdict of ‘not guilty’, and was greeted with satisfaction by the inhabitants of the parish. However, Scrimshaw was not pleased.

Peck’s notes provide more contextual information. He names the author as a ‘young man at St Marys named Fullerlove’. At this time Richard and Robert Fullerlove, sons of John and Sarah Fullerlove, were working as agricultural labourers at Wisbech St Mary. As the only ‘young men’ of this name in the neighbourhood, it is probable that one of them created this poem - entertaining themselves and their friends in the local public house after a hard day of work for the local farmers, possibly even working for Scrimshaw.

Peck goes on to explain some of the references in the poem. ‘Accommodation Coach’ alludes to a notice that was circulated before the trial advertising the beginning of a coach service from The Bell at Murrow to the Chequers at Tholomas Drove. ‘Buy the Murrow Mill’ refers to the sale of four drainage engines belonging to the Fourth District, which were sold by auction after the court case. At least one of them was bought by Scrimshaw and converted to a flour mill, known as Murrow Mill, which he leased over the ensuing years. I have found no evidence of him working the mill on his own behalf.

Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, 11 Jul 1834, p 3 [British Newspaper Archive] 

John Peck’s Diaries: Wisbech and Fenland Museum

John Peck (1787-1851) was born in Newton, near Wisbech. He kept a diary from 1814 until he died in 1851: highlighting local and personal events, as well as providing extensive information on farming in the Wisbech area. Dian Blawer has written two booklets using Peck’s diaries: John Peck of Parson Drove: An Exceptional Fenman, and The Trade of a Farmer: John Peck of Parson Drove, both of which are available from the Wisbech and Fenland Museum.

This parody poem highlights the continuing importance of doing research in local archives and museums. Today research in archives far from our homes is easier than it has been in the past. Online catalogues can provide initial access, but the knowledge of local researchers and archivists is invaluable. It is important to look at the original document. While the transcription that I received initially was a wonderful gift; the image sent by David Wright, a curator at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, provided the handwritten notes on the poem and the following page, leading both to the possible identification of the original authors; and Peck’s hand-written explanation of the circumstances surrounding the events parodied is enlightening. 

I am looking forward to the day when I can spend more time in the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, researching the library and archives collections which tell me so much more about the lives of my family in the 17th-20th century East Anglican landscape.

Edward Scrimshaw was a well-known figure in his community, living a full life and leaving an extensive trail in documents and newspapers. He will figure in more stories.

Acknowledgements:

1. L. Alan Bullwinkle, a fourth cousin and noted local genealogist and researcher, has always been supportive of my endeavours to find out more about our shared families and their connections to the Fenlands. Alan sent me the original transcription of the poem, together with extensive extracts from the diaries, full of family information and context.

2. The staff at the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, who have provided access to materials in person and by email. I acknowledge their permission to publish the image from John Peck’s 1834 diary.

3. The court case that led to the writing of the poem was reported in local newspapers: Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette, 15 Mar 1834, p 2 [British Newspaper Archive].

4. The poem was published in volume II of Fenland Notes and Queries: A Quarterly Antiquarian Journal for the Fenland in 1894, (Rev W D Sweeting (ed), Peterborough, Geo C Caster, pp 286-7). https://archive.org/details/fenlandnotesquer2189pete

© 2017, Maureen R West

All Rights Reserved

Decimal Currency Changeover: 50 years ago today

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of Decimal Currency in New Zealand – a highlight of our childhoods for those of a certain generation. No longer did we have the learn pounds, shillings and pence, and counting in groups of 12; but dollars and cents, and counting in groups of 10.

Decimal Currency Board Trade Stall
Ian Matheson City Archives, Palmerston North

http://bit.ly/2uZVHsp

The currency change legislation was passed in 1964, leading to much discussion about the designs and education up until the date of the introduction. The Decimal Currency Board was responsible for educating the public for this significant change: providing materials to schools, where children studied and sat tests to become ‘Dollar Scholars’.(1)  The Board also held regular education sessions and roadshows for members of the public.

Such a major change in currency design was not without controversy. The Treasury’s Coinage Design Advisory Committee commissioned several designers to submit designs. When the initial designs met with resistance from the London-based Royal Mint Advisory Committee new designs were called for. They eventually commissioned James Berry to design the new coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents.(2) The banknotes, in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $100, were the first New Zealand banknotes to show the reigning monarch, and featured complicated geometric patterns, including Māori imagery.(3)

On Monday 10 July 1967 the New Zealand Herald dedicated its front page to the changeover, leading with the headline, ‘Dollars, Cents Have Now Become Coin 0f Realm’.

New Zealand Herald headlines on 10 July 1967

New Zealand Herald, 11 July 1967, p 2

The changeover was generally smooth, with prices being advertised in both currencies, and retailers advertising staff services to assist customers make the transition.

However, some consternation was caused when the first two cent coins were found to be ‘mules’. A significant number of the coins had been stamped with the New Zealand reverse – the kowhai design – and the Bahamas obverse of the Queen’s head, designed by Arnold Machin. The Royal Mint estimated that 100,000 of the coins had been minted, agreeing to replace them at no cost to the New Zealand Government.(4)

The conversion to decimal currency was a highlight of that year of my life. We had recently got a television set and I can still remember the advertisements which formed the soundtrack for a large part of that year.

Further information:

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/nz-adopts-decimal-currency 
https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/3742/decimal-currency-song-1967
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/decimal-currency-changeover-1967
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBR72_XijB0&list=PLIQLBUryqII-8kH2UFCb0quuxhK0Jrr3-

To see what it would cost today take a look at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Inflation Calculator:

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator 

1.  Decimal Currency Act 1964 (1964 No 27), Sec 23c: 
     http://www.nzlii.org/nz/legis/hist_act/dca19641964n27187/. 
2.  Reserve Bank of New Zealand, James Berry and New Zealand’s 1967 Decimal Coins: http://bit.ly/2v04Fpo.
3.  Reserve Bank of New Zealand, ‘Series 3 banknotes’: http://bit.ly/2uGYRlI.  
4.  Reserve Bank Museum and Education Centre, Fact Sheet, The 1967 two cent 'mule': http://bit.ly/2tXTFfw.  
5.  New Zealand Herald headlines and advertisement used with the permission of the publisher.

© 2017, Maureen R West
All Rights Reserved

Captured in Libya

Over recent months many of us have watched the events unfolding across North Africa, thought of the places mentioned, and stopped to remember their meaning for our family history.

Suez Harbour, 16 Nov 1940

W H E West Collection

Seventy years ago today my father, Private Wilfred West of the Royal Corps of Signals, was captured in Libya – at El Mechili (also known as Fort Mechili).  He had arrived at Suez in November 1940.  The events surrounding his capture were described by his Commanding Officer in a letter to my grandmother: ‘In our recent withdrawal, I had kept behind with me a small party of men, of which your son was one.  I had, of course, picked my best men to stay with me, as one does in a crisis.  We withdrew at night, and I brought up the rear of our small convoy.  It was very dark, and the roads were blocked with traffic.  No one dropped out behind me.  I can only conclude that the party he was with, went on ahead, and losing their way in the darkness, were captured by a German patrol.  He was a good worker, and I always relied on him.’ 

My father, along with hundreds of other new Prisoners of War (POWs) arrived at Campo Prigionieri di Guerra (PG) 78, Fonte d’Amore, Sulmona on 15 May 1941, having travelled with hundreds of other men via Derna, Benghazi, and an Italian transit camp at Capua (Campo PG 66).  The two groups of Allied generals captured during the same battle (6-8 April 1941), were transferred to Villa Orsini on the southern outskirts of Sulmona.  They were sorted into huts of 42 men, and each allocated a single iron folding bed with sheets.  They proceeded to organise themselves into ‘combines’ – a group of approximately six men – who for the next two and a half years would share their rations, Red Cross parcels and private parcels in order that they would survive the times ahead of them.  Waves of men continued to arrive throughout 1941, necessitating the replacement of the single beds with wooden, immovable bunks, thereby doubling the numbers in each hut to 84.

Rations within the camp varied throughout the war and were supplemented by Red Cross and private parcels which usually began to arrive soon after coming into the camp – as soon as family and friends had an address – for example, those who arrived in May 1941 parcels received their first private parcels in September.  The numbers and types of parcels varied over time and could be irregular: a feast or a famine – in the month of May 1943 over 8000 private parcels were received.  However, when the parcel shortage corresponded with an Italian national ration cut of 60 per cent in March 1942, desperation was in the air and many diaries record the harsh experience of hunger and the loss of weight experienced by the prisoners.

As early as April 1943 rumours were rife throughout the camps about the fortunes of war: repatriation, battles and even the possibility of going home.  There was jubilation with the announcement of the Italian Armistice on the evening of 8 September, and many prisoners left the camp over the ensuing days.  Within a fortnight of the armistice 327 British and Commonwealth ex-prisoners had reached Allied lines.  However, the majority of them were soon recaptured by German soldiers and returned to their camps, before their ultimate transfer to Germany and Poland for the remainder of the war.  Many of those who survived, did so only because they were housed, fed and guided by dozens of extremely generous Italian people, at enormous risk to themselves.  Indeed, many Italians were killed, deported or made destitute as a result of helping the prisoners of war.

Wilfred West, 1946

W H E West Collection

My father had travelled south through the Apennines for six weeks with a companion, dressed as a shepherd.  On 27 October 1943, a cold and wet day, they were challenged by two young German soldiers near Lago di Scanno and recaptured.  They were taken back the 75 kilometres to Campo PG102 (L’Aquila) where they were transferred to a train bound for Germany.  On 10 Nov 1943 they arrived at Stalag VIIA at Moosberg, north of Munich, which was their base camp until General Patton’s troops liberated the camp on 29 April 1945.  Victory in Europe (VE) day was a truly happy day as they arrived in England and home to their families.  The next months and years were a time of adjustment in many ways: emotions, food, return to jobs after years of comparative idleness, illness, rehabilitation and the final demobilization from the army.

Today many children and grandchildren of former prisoners of war are trying to discover the stories of their ancestors ‘missing years’.  As the prisoners have lived in the shadow of the camps, so too have their families lived in the shadow of their wartime experiences, spoken and unspoken.

© 2011, Maureen R West

All Rights Reserved

Mary Maguire, an Irish ‘Fearless Female’

This biography has been written in response to Lisa Azlo’s ‘Fearless Female’ challenge for 27 March 2011: ‘Do you know the immigration story of one or more female ancestors?  Do you have any passenger lists, passports, or other documentation?  Interesting family stories?’

Mary Maguire Dolan and Margaret Dolan, 1898
Shattuck Farm, Andover, MA

There has been much written about Irish migration to North America during the nineteenth century, and increasingly, the twentieth century.  However, an under-examined part of this migration is the crossing and recrossing of the North Atlantic by individuals who maintained significant links on both sides of the ocean.

Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Co Cavan Townland Index

Mary Maguire was the fourth child and third daughter of Hugh Maguire and Kate Melanaphy of County Cavan, Ireland.  Mary was born in Aug 1857, in the townland of Stranamart, located on the road between Dowra and Blacklion in the northwest of County Cavan, on rolling land between Benbrack and Cuilcagh mountains.  The River Shannon rises to the south of the townland, flowing in a south-westerly direction towards Lough Allen. 

Maguire Family Tree

Examining the Maguire family tree, it would appear that Mary, like her parents and the majority of her siblings, never left Ireland: she was born in Stranamart, married in Killinagh church, and died in Cavan Hospital.  But her life is far more complex.  The date of Mary’s initial arrival in the United States is not known, however, in 1880, aged 22 years, she was living and working as a servant in the household of Edward Shattuck and his wife Josephine, in Winchester, Middlesex, Massachusetts.  The pioneering Shattuck family arrived in America at the time of the Pilgrims and were known to employ Irish servants and farm workers regularly for long periods of time: Michael Steinitz in his 1981 ‘Report on Documentary Research: Shattuck Farm, Andover, Massachusetts’ notes that ‘Irish names appeared frequently in the Shattuck Account Books between 1850-60, sometimes simply as “Dennis” or “Patrick”.’

Mary returned to Ireland on a family visit five years later.  Cathal (Charles) Dolan, who had married into land in Derrynatuan townland, was looking for his third wife.  Mary’s American work had provided her with a dowry and she married Cathal on 16 February 1885 in Killinagh parish church.  During the next 10 years she bore seven children in Derrynatuan.

Dolan Family Tree

In 1895 Mary returned to America to work for Edward and Josephine Shattuck, now living at the Shattuck Farm in Andover, Massachusetts, on River Road in the West Parish, Andover, on the southern banks of the Merrimack River.  The farm had been established in the early eighteenth century, on land initially owned by the Abbot family, before passing to the Shattuck brothers who transformed it into ‘an efficient, large-scale dairy and market gardening operation’.  Mary had left the children in the care of Cathal’s widowed mother, Margaret Dolan - her youngest, Kate was an infant.  When Margaret Dolan died in 1897, Kate, now 2 years old, was severely burned when she fell into the hearth.  When Mary returned to Ireland to make other arrangements for the children, she arranged for her elder sister, Rose Durkin of Corleckagh Lower, to provide ‘supervision’ of the Dolan household.  Mary returned to Andover with her eldest daughter, Margaret in 1898.  Margaret joined her mother working for the Shattuck family, even though at 12 years old she was underage and was required to be in school.

Mary and Margaret Dolan returned to Ireland in 1906 as Charles was very ill with rheumatic fever.  Having brought him back to health, she decided ‘he needed discipline’ and arranged for him to return to the Shattuck Farm with her.  Mary, son Charles (19 years), daughter Rose (13 years), and their cousins, John (14 years) and Rose Durkin (7 years), left Derrynatuan in April 1907, travelling from Blacklion to Liverpool, where Mary became ill and was hospitalised.  The youngsters boarded the SS Cymric (White Star Line) on 10 May 1907 in Liverpool, England.  Awaiting them in Boston was their sister Mary Ann who was already employed by the Shattucks, having possibly arrived in America in 1905 with her cousin Patrick Durkin, with whom John and Rose Durkin went to live in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Family Migration Patterns

By the time of the 1911 Census of Ireland Mary Maguire Dolan had returned to Derrynatuan, where she remained.  She was present for her youngest daughter Kate’s wedding in the Glangevlin church to Peter Mick Dolan of Derrylahan in 1918.  The family papers speculated that she may have been working in England, and it is possible that she did spend time there but I can find no further record of her working for the Shattuck family, or of being with her three children in America.

Mary’s daughter Rose returned to Ireland in 1920 after working for the Shattuck family in Andover and New York and in the Lawrence textile mills.  When she married Charles Cornyn from the Dolan home on 7 February 1921 her mother Mary was present.  Mary died of pneumonia on 4 July 1922 in the Cavan Hospital.

Mary Maguire is one of the 10 percent of return migrants from the period prior to 1920, but her frequent journeys across the Atlantic may be considered as exceptional in this period.  It would appear that she probably made the ‘conscious decision to emigrate’ that Donald Harman Akenson described in his 1996 book The Irish Diaspora: A Primer.  She was part of a chain migration of interconnected families from the townlands of north-west Cavan to the area surrounding Lawrence, Massachusetts from the 1860s into the twentieth century: Maguires, Dolans, McGoverns, and Rourkes.  These networks remained paramount: Mary and her children took her niece and nephew to America in 1907; her daughter Mary probably travelled to America with her cousin.  The networks in Derrynatuan and the surrounding townlands are also important: Mary’s mother-in-law cared for the children from 1895-97 and her elder sister Rose Durkin from 1898, including having John Dolan living with her and her own large family at the time of the Irish Census in 1901.

Mary’s subsequent visits back to Derrynatuan in 1898 and 1906 were precipitated by illness and the need to care for her children: the death of Margaret Dolan; Kate being burnt in the hearth; the illness of her eldest son; and the potential marriage in Ireland of her daughter Margaret.  This knowledge of the family situation suggests that Mary was in regular correspondence with her family in Derrynatuan and with the Shattuck family in Andover.  Unfortunately no letters survive.

Mary and her daughters were among the 70.4 percent of Irish women who were employed as servants in 1900.  How Mary became an employee of the Shattuck family is not known.  However, the presence of Mary Doland [Dolan] in the household in 1870 suggests that she may have been introduced to the household through family connections from Ireland.  This working relationship continued for at least 26 years and extended to Mary’s children until 1920.

Any recording of her reasons for the decisions she made have not survived to this generation.  Among her own generation she was remembered as ‘a smart lady’.  While other members of the Maguire family were reputed to be a ‘wild bunch’, she was remembered with affection and admiration.

Mary Maguire Dolan’s experience of crossing and recrossing the North Atlantic challenge our understanding of the migration patterns of Irish women who travelled to America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  As always, when the record of individuals is more closely examined the global patterns and sub-patterns are shown to be more complex than the history that uses ‘official’ records would initially seem to be.

In conclusion, I would like therefore to pose some questions: is Mary’s migration experience exceptional in her time; or is it a reflection of a wider pattern of migration that will become more evident as historians examine the individual stories of increasing numbers of women who moved to, and between, continents during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?  Or is it more a precursor of the migration experiences of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and many others, as they moved between Ireland and Great Britain in the period between 1940 and the 1980s?

Acknowledgements:

1. Mary Maguire is one of my maternal great-grandmothers.  This biography was previously part of a paper I presented to the 13th Irish–Australian Conference, Irish Spaces: Homeland, Asylum, Empire, Diaspora, on 28 Sep 2004 at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: ‘The North Atlantic Motorway: Crossing and Recrossing from Ireland to America’.
2. This story is based on family papers and stories collected by Mary J Levesque (nee Dolan), the eldest daughter of Charles Dolan and Ellen Menihane (1914-1999).  Between 1964-1982 she visited the valleys of Glangevlin and Killinagh parishes in County Cavan several times with her mother and daughter, to collect the stories and genealogies and undertake research in the Dublin archives.  After I visited her in September 1987 she collated all her material into the family trees that are in my collection and wrote the narrative of my great-grandmother and grandmother Mary Maguire and Rose Dolan that forms the basis of this blog.  I am greatly indebted to her as much of this information is now unknown in the parishes of Glangevlin and Killinagh.
3. I am indebted to the Andover Historical Society, of Andover (MA, USA) who provided me with important documents to collaborate the family stories: Michael Steinitz, ‘Report on Documentary Research: Shattuck Farm, Andover, Massachusetts’, Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1981; and The Townsman Directory of Andover, Mass for 1899 and 1904.

© 2011, Maureen R West

All Rights Reserved

A Genealogical Journey

Welcome to my blog where I intend to explore my genealogical roots: connecting to the past, through research in the present, and sharing the knowledge for the future generations.

My journey began alongside my father, Wilfred West, in 1970 when he received two letters from the USA: one from Dorothy Anne West, a grand-daughter of James West and Sarah Ann Richardson, who had migrated from the English Fens to the United States in 1865, eventually settling in Lake County, Ohio; and the other from Randy Reynoldson, a descendant of Robert Reynoldson and Mary West who had migrated from Wisbech to Canada, before settling in Plum Creek, Nebraska in 1872.  My father responded with what he knew – quite a lot as it happened, which is no doubt why his English based family had provided everyone with our address in New Zealand.

The following months were busy as Dad compiled all that he knew, drew huge trees, and corresponded with his new found cousins, sharing the knowledge gained during generations on both sides of the Atlantic, and being distilled together in the Southern Hemisphere.  All the while I sat and watched, listened and absorbed, and began my lifetime genealogical journey (and obsession).

When Dad died in 1981 his papers, letters, photographs and charts were passed to me and I have continued to research our family history ever since.  The journey has taken me around the world, to England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, the United States of America, and Australia; and through the internet to many other places as well.  I have contacted many members of my extended family and to them I owe many debts - for without their knowledge I would not have been able to undertake this research.  Their generosity of spirit and hospitality is much appreciated.

I often wonder what my father and his cousins would make of the family research world of today: from their world of writing letters, hand drawing charts and waiting (and waiting) for a reply before the cycle began again, to that we inhabit today - where writing an email often gets an almost instant reply; all our data goes into a research database and it draws the charts; those longed for records can be accessed on the desk in our own home; and we can even attend seminars from other parts of the world in our own lounge (or bed if it is too early in the morning or late at night).

I hope that my periodic blogs will inspire you to continue to do your research and provide you with some entertainment along the way.

I will leave you with a thought for the day: 'To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to remain a child' (Cicero, I Caesar).

© 2011, Maureen R West

All Rights Reserved